The Life of Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry was born in 1937 and grew up traveling all around America, and even to Tokyo, because of her father's position in the military as a dentist. Her older sister died at a young age and she married young-after one year in college. With her husband she had four children in four and a half years, all the while travelling around the United States, living in six different states. I think it is evident that many of her novels reflect her experiences from her youth. She even claims that "A Summer to Die" is a retelling of the of her sister and how she is missed in their family.

One thing I found particularly interesting about Lowry is her choice of theme in all her works: "the importance of human connections." After reading about this, I've realized going through "The Giver" that her whole story is about human connections- the way children relate to one another in their age group, the way the family unit relates, the way the nurturer relates to newchildren, the way a brother relates to his sister. In her autobiography, she comments that in "The Giver" she built on that common theme and shows, "the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment." Once the reader is aware of her aim, it is especially easy to find.